


Flight of Curiosity

by Nevanna



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Academia, Multi, Polyamory, Shapeshifting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-25 17:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16665202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevanna/pseuds/Nevanna
Summary: Arram tries to shape-shift for the first time.





	Flight of Curiosity

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written for the "wings" prompt in Round 9 of Hurt/Comfort Bingo, and takes place a few years after _Tempests & Slaughter_, though I won't be surprised it future books contradict it.

Varice is so absorbed in the pattern that she’s sketching (she hopes to use it as a model for a fruit tart at the university’s next formal dinner) that she doesn’t realize what Arram is reading until he remarks upon it aloud. “I didn’t know that animal transformation was on your schedule,” she says, glancing up.

“Nor is it.” Arram gives the hefty tome a pat. “I heard it mentioned in a lecture and couldn’t resist investigating further. Some of the core theory is similar to healing magic, but it’s one thing to persuade a broken limb to mend itself, and quite another to convince a body that it should have wings that weren’t there before.”

“Is that what you’d like to change into, if you could?” Varice asks. “Something with wings?”

“Wouldn’t _you_?” Ozorne has been even moodier than usual since his last letter from the imperial palace, but for the first time in several days, there is life in his voice.

“I think most of us have dreamed about it,” Varice agrees. “But I’m usually quite happy here on the ground.” She squeezes Arram’s hand. “I hope you won’t experiment without talking to us first.”

\--

They are waiting for Arram when he falls from the sky.

While Varice stands by with a blanket, Ozorne weaves a net of emerald light at waist level, making sure that it’s large enough to catch a man-sized blur of skin and feathers before it hits the forest floor.

“Arram,” Varice calls gently, with both her words and her thoughts. “Come back to us.”

“Yes, so that she can fuss at you for trying to shape-shift before you were ready,” Ozorne says, and she stamps on his foot.

Hawk’s eyes dart wildly between them, and then slowly, blessedly, melt into warm, dark, and very human ones. The feathers recede, and Arram’s curls tumble over his forehead. The wings are the last to go, and while they look lovely against his back, they aren’t large enough, and might never have been strong enough, to carry his weight. As they vanish, Varice wraps the blanket around his shoulders.

“Thank you,” Arram whispers. “Both of you.” She nods into his hair and tightens her embrace, holding on steadily until he stops shaking.

\--

Later, all three of them crowd together under that same blanket. “If I may _fuss_ now,” Varice says, “I’ll thank you not to scare us like that ever again.”

“Or else we might be forced to hide your books,” Ozorne adds, catching Arram’s earlobe between his teeth.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Arram fires back, trying unsuccessfully for a threatening glower. “Besides, if you did, how would I research ways to make my next attempt less of a disaster?”

“Oh?” Varice raises her head and bats her eyelashes as innocently as she knows how. “You mean to say that you don’t have every page of every volume memorized?”

“Perhaps I’ll manage such a thing, by the end of the term. If I’m not too _distracted_.” His breath tickles her cheek, and she shivers pleasantly. “And if I take another fall, there’s nobody in all the known realms that I trust to catch me, more than I trust the two of you.”


End file.
